Force India

Force India

Monday 20th February 2006

Four names in four years in the story of the Force Indian, formerly Spyker, formerly Midland, formerly Jordan, Formula One team. And that's about the only note-worthy fact regarding this team in present years.

Jordan entered F1 in 1991 and was largely regarded as a stepping-stone outfit for drivers such as Michael and Ralf Schumacher, Eddie Irvine, Johnny Herbert and Rubens Barrichello, who all drove for the team early in their careers.

However, after encountering financial problems a decade later, it wasn't long before the team sold to Russian-born Canadian billionaire businessman, Alex Schnaider (Midland chief), who opted to retain the Jordan name and its canary-yellow livery for 2005.

But - for the third consecutive season - the team finished second to last in the championship, bagging just 12 points. And 11 of those were scored at the six-car United States GP where they only had to beat the Minardi to claim third and fourth.

Clearly Schnaider's changes hadn't worked but that didn't spot him ringing in the changes in the build-up to the 2006 season. But the name change, Midland, and a livery change, red-black-and-silvery, didn't cover the cracks.

The team's youthful line-up in Christian Albers and Monteiro struggled during both qualifying and the races and it took the team until the eighth grand prix of the season to break into the second segment of the new-look qualifying sessions. As for the grands prix, the M16 proved pretty reliable, but lacked the pace of the more established midfielders.

The team wasn't helped by a few get togethers with its own drivers, the most notable being their notorious start-line incident in Monaco.

However, the team persevered and as the gap between the M16 and the midfield closed, Monteiro and Albers made some progress, finishing ninth and tenth in Hungary, ahead of Scott Speed's Toro Rosso and the Toyota of Jarno Trulli. But that result proved to be the high point of the season.

As for the low point, that came at the German Grand Prix when both M16's were disqualified after the FIA deemed the cars' rear wings illegally flexible.

Rumours also began claiming that Shnaider was looking to sell his team and in September it was confirmed that the team had been sold to Dutch car manufacturer, Spyker.

Spyker quickly went to work setting up a better package for 2007 that included Ferrari engines along with various sponsors bringing in the much-needed funds.

As for the low point, that came at the German Grand Prix when both M16's were disqualified after the FIA deemed the cars' rear wings illegally flexible.

Rumours also began claiming that Shnaider was looking to sell his team and in September it was confirmed that the team had been sold to Dutch car manufacturer, Spyker.

Spyker quickly went to work setting up a better package for 2007 that included Ferrari engines along with various sponsors bringing in the much-needed funds. Sponsored drivers, such as Christijan Albers, also helped wet the coffers.

But it was quickly evident that money cannot buy instant success as the team languished at the back of the Formula One grid. 14 retirements, eigth of which were crashes didn't help the team's chances neither did the loss of Albers' financial package, which eventually resulted in the Dutchman being replaced by German driver Markus Winkelhock for one race, the European GP.

The race, ironic given that both Winkelhock and Adrian Sutil retired from it, was one of the highlights of an otherwise dismal season as at one stage Winkelhock held a 30-sec lead in the drenched grand prix. However, a few laps and a pitstop later and the front-runners were back in the front.

Spyker's only other highlight came at the Japanese Gp when Sutil in eight place, earning the team their one and only point of the season.

And it wasn't long after that Spyker was once again up for sale, this time being bought by Vijay Mallya and Michael Mol, who have renamed the team Force India.

In 2008, with Sutil and experienced driver Giancarlo Fisichella behind the wheel, Force India, racing under the Indian colours, will be hoping that Mallya's money will give the team the boost it needs to move up the grid. But as has already been proven by this team, it may take more than money.

Post to del.icio.us